Residential & Occupational Disease Rates & Solutions

How many of you have experienced or know someone who has
experienced an illness within the last year?
Think about it for a minute; because, this is often under evaluated
component of our lives. I, myself, took
my own health for granted once. After
years of training in Chinese martial arts (something called wushu), I believed
that I was tough and consciously
chose to overlook many warning signs that my body was in need of service. It wasn't until I ended up in the hospital, in
need of surgery, that I woke up to the fact that I wasn't as tough as I thought
I was and that real health and well-being required a more conscious, will-full
and proactive engagement.

Here in the United States (U.S.), "Americans, on average, spend approximately 90 percent of their time
indoors, where the concentrations of some pollutants are often 2 to 5 times
higher than outdoor concentrations" (EPA Indoor Air). This creates an
intimate relationship between our biological systems and our built environments
(something in medicine studying under toxicology). In fact, the EPA states that "people who are often most susceptible to the
adverse effects of pollution (e.g. the very young, older adults, people with
cardiovascular or respiratory disease) tend to spend even more time indoors."

Does this mean that if you don't fall into the EPA's "most susceptible" population that you're free of risk? Not according to the International Labor Organization (ILO). Across the Earth, the ILO reports that "of the estimated 2.34 million annual work-related deaths, the vast
majority - approximately 2.02 million - are due to work-related diseases. This represents a daily average of 5,500
deaths." In a separate ILO report, they found that many of these diseases were common to both the workplace and worker's homes, like lead components, benzene, asbestos, alcohols, noise, vibration, biological agents (like certain bacteria, viruses, and fungi), and other asthma and allergy triggers. Here in the U.S., the CDC compiled an Infectious Diseases Designated as Notifiable in the National Level report, which cited many of these same agents as well as a few biological systems (human, animal, etc.) and routes of exposure (foodborne, airborne, etc.).

Why do I bring all of this up? Well, like me and my chosen ignorance (more like foolishness, since I was choosing to act in ignorance), many of these diseases are preventable. They require a little more investment, in the form of conscious, will-full, proactive measures of prevention. And, SOLUTIONS Indoor Environmental Consulting can help.

While it is true that SOLUTIONS helps many through processes
of natural disaster response, insurance claims processing, and property damage,
we can also help those experiencing Sick Building Syndrome, Building Related
Illness, or who just want to proactively measure and respond to their built
environment's need for maintenance.
Don't take chances, ladies and gentlemen, gain empowering Solutions -
today!